Chapter 16
Line of Hypocrisy (1) is the sixteenth chapter of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Summary Yoo Joonghyuk, waiting at Dongho Bridge, looks up at the currently occurring meteor shower, a precursor to Main Scenario 3. He looks down at Han River, noting that three days have passed. He thinks that expecting Kim Dokja to be able to catch an ichthyosaur after merely the first scenario may have been too much to ask, but knowing that anyone who could keep up with him would have to be able to achieve that much at least. He leaves, disappointed and alone. Just then, Kim Dokja wakes up in the ichthyosaur's stomach, having dreamt of Yoo Joonghyuk's departure, and is greeted by Bihyung. Kim Dokja finds himself more recovered, having taken the Ellain Forest Essence to help himself sleep and heal, and as Bihyung disappears, he recalls their successful contract with relief. He then prepares to leave, cutting through the ichthyosaur's body and emerging into Han River. Upon swimming to the shore, the constellations' ominous messages alert him to a problem, which he reveals he expected: the upcoming second main scenario has polluted the entirety of the above-ground area. The poisonous fog in the air has already affected his bared skin; noting the location of the monsters creating the fog, he quickly uses the Ellain Monkey's Lungs (previously bought from the Dokkaebi Bag) as an air purifier and hurries towards the nearest underground entrance. Since the above-ground Oksu Station has been destroyed, he aims for Geumho Station. As he moves, he secures replacement clothes from the nearby dead bodies (despite his discomfort at handling the deceased) and goes to a convenience store to collect any surviving food. As he works to fill a few bags of food, he hears a cry for help from a young woman lying in the corner of the store. He immediately checks her condition and picks her up as she's unable to walk, running with her to Geumho Station. As they reach the station, the woman directs Kim Dokja to the nearest safe entrance. He arrives just as the shutter is being closed, and forces it open using his thorn. The people within the station are scared away by his coin-boosted strength; he enters and sets down the woman safely, closing the shutter and formally entering the scenario's safe zone. He then hands over the Ellain Monkey's Lungs to the woman to help heal her of the poison, and is about to use Character List to check her Attributes Window. However, he is interrupted by a group of men who appear through the darkness, wielding metal pipes. They demand to know who he is and are nonplussed by him responding merely with his name. They then realize that he has brought back the woman "from the marginalized group", noting her torn skirt and implying that they sexually assaulted her. The group demands that Kim Dokja hand over the woman and his bags of food, upon which they will allow him to live. The constellations who have been following Kim Dokja are irritated by these unreasonable demands and commission a bounty scenario asking for him to neutralize the group of men. Kim Dokja, having expected this turn of events, readies himself to fight.Chapter 16 Features Characters * Yoo Joonghyuk * Kim Dokja * The sea commander ichthyosaur * Abyssal Black Flame Dragon (indirect) * Jung Heewon (unnamed) * Prisoner of the Golden Headband (indirect) * Demon-like Judge of Fire (indirect) * Bang Cheolsoo Objects * Ellain Forest Essence * Ellain Monkey's Lungs Locations * Han River * Geumho Station Scenarios * Bounty Scenario: Remove the Interference Trivia * The first scene of the chapter, featuring Yoo Joonghyuk, mentions that the meteor shower is a precursor to Main Scenario 3. Given that the second main scenario has yet to truly begin at this point, this is likely a typo, and the sentence was probably intended to say that the meteor shower was a precursor to Main Scenario 2. * This is the first occurrence of a bounty scenario. References